Dwarf Gourami in 10 gallon tank

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I currently have a dwarf gourami in my 10 gallon tank along with a peppered cory and a mystery snail. I have read on ...

I currently have a dwarf gourami in my 10 gallon tank along with a peppered cory and a mystery snail. I have read on the internet and I seem to get split results on if it is a good idea or not to have a DG in my 10 gallon. I would like to add a small fish or two to get more activity in the tank, but I do not want to over stock. I had a male turquoise guppy in the tank and that DG kind of bullied him so I got another 10 gallon and put him and other guppies in a separate tank.

I was just wondering if I could put any other fish in with the DG or if I should just try to give the DG away and set the tank up with other schooling fish because I am slowly falling in love with my guppy tank.

If you keep the dwarf gourami it will be fine alone in the 10g. I would add a few more corys though, they need a grouop and five is the minimum. This won't hurt your tank if you are weekly with partial water changes, and you should have floating plants (gourami love these anyway).

The profile mentions that brightly-coloured fish often bring out aggressiveness in gourami, and you have seen evidence of this.

It's suggested to keep at least three of each species of Cory when mixing them. Having said that, I have a single pepper Cory with 8 emerald catfish , which are basically corys, and they "get along" but I have no idea how long term that will work.... The Cory was a sort of rescue. I was going to add more emerald cats but now I may add a couple of peppers instead.

We are often out with our cory numbers, for several reasons. I try to get 5-6 of a species, but due to high cost for some I may go with three. [I keep them all together in my 5-foot tank, and currently have close to 40 corys.] Sometimes a store will only have 1 or 2 of a species, so I only buy them. And sometimes you lose a fish over time, and may not be able to find the species again.

I don't know exactly how the "five" number came up, but several highly experienced ichthyologists have used it as minimum for corys. The more the better of course. But having mixed species does allow you to have fewer of each species, whatever the reason.

I've had these groups (30-60 corys of various species) in my tanks for many years now, and it has been interesting to observe when they stay with their own species and when they don't. Some species are more prone for remaining together, others rarely do, and some never unless they are stressed (when being moved to a new tank or something). Of course, they know the others are in the tank, and this may satisfy their inherent need for a group. They seem very relaxed generally, and fry do appear from some rather tricky species, so I have to assume they are settled.